Chapter 19

Zerien

W ith much reluctance, I stormed out of the Infirmary. Despite my burning urge to hold my beloved in my arms while she fought for her life, I would be of no use to her. For now, I needed to find that assassin to both make him sorely pay for his crime and to prevent him from striking again.

Another wave of anger surged through me when I stepped outside and saw who remained standing guard.

"Where the fuck is Alred?!" I hissed.

My father's guards and mine flinched. I didn't need a mirror to know how feral and vicious I looked right now. There was a reason no one dared challenge me for the throne. My reputation for being a savage and a sadist wasn't unfounded. I was the nicest and most compassionate man in the world… until you crossed me.

"He went to the control room to check the security camera footage to track down the assassin's whereabouts," Drade replied cautiously.

I started moving before he even finished his sentence. He and Naax fell into step with me. In the few minutes it took us to reach our destination, my anger was nearing murderous rage. I forced myself to invoke my kaa to cool my temper. Not for the first time, I silently thanked Vahleryon—our future Great General—for insisting I allow the Korlethean to teach us this advanced meditation technique and power. Before that, bringing my anger down to manageable levels would have either failed—resulting in my target being seriously maimed or killed—or taken an insane amount of time and effort.

Nevertheless, I barged into the room and immediately used my mind control powers on Alred before he could speak a single word.

"Were you involved in any way in the assassination attempt against my mate?" I demanded with my vibrating voice before sealing the command with a flash from my eyes.

Under different circumstances, the hurt look in Alred's eyes would have shamed me. But right now, knowing who I could trust and pinning down the son of krillik who harmed my mate was all I cared about. Lucky for him, he didn't attempt to resist the compulsion—not that he would have succeeded—and willingly complied.

"I had no part in it whatsoever," he said in a firm tone while sustaining my gaze unwaveringly. "A person I genuinely believed to be Kaelin relieved me of my duty and instructed me to come meet with you in your office. I never would have left my post without receiving my orders through the standard communication channels had it been anyone other than the Head of your Council. On my life, I never would have allowed any female—least of all your mate—to come to harm."

Although relieved by the sincerity with which he spoke, my anger didn't abate. The irrational, feral part of me still wanted to beat him senseless for his failure. By the look on his face, mine fully displayed my feelings.

"Our future Queen, your soulmate, got hurt on my watch," Alred continued, this time, anger mostly aimed at himself seeped into his voice. "I'll accept whatever punishment you deem appropriate for my failure. But I beg of you, my Prince, please let me help you catch him first. I would see him die in the most painful way."

I clenched my teeth, shame finally finding root in the pit of my stomach for unfairly targeting my anger at him.

"The assassin fooled everyone, including my mate," I conceded in a growly tone. "But we cannot assume the assassin is actually a male. My gut says it is, but we must account for the possibility that a female did this. After all, they impersonated Kaelin. They could have simply impersonated Drade, which would have raised less questions as to why you couldn't wait for him to arrive before he relieved you."

"Yes," Alred replied with obvious relief laced with gratitude. "We're accounting for that possibility. But like you, we believe we're dealing with a male. Our females do not go on missions. If one of them is involved, I would suspect her to be one of the masterminds, not the executioner."

"Agreed," I said before shifting my attention to the wall of monitors in front of the two technicians scanning through the footage. "What have you found?"

He gestured for one of the two technicians to replay what they had gathered so far.

"We've made a montage of all the footage which captured the impostor and the real Kaelin, to recreate the sequence of events," Alred said, pointing at the main monitor at the top. "As you can see here, Kaelin entered the palace through the Atrium."

"Ancestors!" I hissed in a breath.

The resemblance was perfect. Had Kaelin herself not confirmed she'd been impersonated, I would never have believed this was someone else.

"Naturally, no one challenged her presence. She went to get food in the kitchen. The cooks confirmed they prepared the food but had to hurry because she arrived almost forty minutes earlier than expected."

"Our cooks prepared that poisoned food?!" I exclaimed.

"They didn't taint it," Alred said quickly. "The assassin did it. It was hard to pinpoint the exact moment. But in this footage, notice how she moves very close to the wall, as if to avoid being in anyone's way while answering a call. We cannot confirm whether there was indeed a call. But this section hardly ever has traffic. In fact, she was alone there when she did this. And it conveniently happened to be the one place you can stand to be mostly off camera. Just two steps back, and we would have seen her tray and whatever she was doing with it."

"While I agree this looks like a plausible explanation, you can't be certain she put the poison at that specific moment," I argued.

"I feel fairly confident because look here when she resumes walking in plain view of the camera," Alred countered before pausing the recording. "Look at the position of the jug and the cover of the lid on the temperature-controlled plate."

He gestured at the technician, who brought up a still image of the tray seconds before Kaelin went off camera and displayed it next to the paused video. It was clear that in the few seconds during which we had been unable to see the tray, its contents had been tampered with. The jug's position had shifted, and the handle of the lid had rotated by at least thirty to forty degrees.

"Good catch," I said, genuinely impressed.

"She didn't go anywhere else and went straight to the Greeting Hall outside your quarters. She even nodded at me on the way, and I nodded back. Less than ten minutes later, you see her come back out. That's when she told me that you were summoning me. As you can see, I was quite baffled as to why Drade didn't simply contact me directly. I should have followed my gut. But I complied and left."

"As you said, you had no reason to doubt her. The real Kaelin would have chewed you up and spit you out had you challenged her orders," I said distractedly, my eyes still glued to the monitor.

To my shock, the impostor watched Alred leave for a few seconds before turning back towards the entrance to my quarters. However, she never went inside. Instead, she started interacting with the interface of her armband. In the montage, the camera zoomed in as much as possible, but the assassin stood at the perfect angle to prevent us from getting a good look at the screen.

"After a few minutes, some sort of interference messed with the feed. It didn't interrupt it, just blurred it. And then Kaelin is gone but there I am instead," Alred said angrily. "But it's not me!"

"What the fuck?!" I hissed.

"It is not me," Alred reiterated forcefully when I cast a suspicious look his way.

Based on his answer following my compulsion, I knew it wasn't him. But the video evidence was messing with my head.

He brought up another footage next to the one outside my dwelling. "See the time stamps? This is me—the real me—standing outside of your office, waiting for you. And this is the imposter pretending to be me standing outside your dwelling at the exact same time."

"Is that some kind of holographic disguise?!" I exclaimed.

"I have no idea, my Prince. But as you can see here, the imposter waited until the real Kaelin came over. As soon as the Princess let her in, the assassin left. We've been able to track his movements all the way to the ship hangar. Six ships have left since."

"Were you able to track them and make them come back?"

"We did intercept and force them to land for an inspection. The entire crew was accounted for, and their identities confirmed," Alred said in an apologetic tone. "I fear we've lost track of the assassin. He must have exited the hangar, but not as Kaelin or me."

"How could they change their appearance again?! If it was a holographic disguise, our scanners would have detected it!" I exclaimed.

"That was our thought, too," Alred said, running a frustrated hand through his hair. "But whatever method they're using, it's fooling our scanners. Even our DNA scans reveal nothing unusual. No one has walked within these walls that isn't authorized."

"How the fuck are they doing that?!" I snarled.

"We have no clue, my Prince."

"Figure it out!" I snapped, feeling immediately like a shit for my outburst.

I heaved a sigh, shook my head in disappointment with myself, and gave him an apologetic look. He smiled, confirming all was well. Just as I was opening my mouth to speak, the door of the control room opened on Faolen. My guards and I immediately took an offensive stance.

"It's the real Faolen," he preemptively said. "You suggested the gem I used for the jewelry I gave my mate for our anniversary as it has a special meaning for Korletheans."

I instantly relaxed, although my right hand itched with the urge to smack the smug look off his face.

"What have you got?" I grumbled as my men also stood down.

"We tracked the assassin," he said.

"WHAT?!" I exclaimed, my shock reflected on the guards' faces. "Where?"

"A young female named Adana left the palace and went to the Serail," Faolen said.

"And you caught her?" I asked, my hope instantly crushed by his grim expression.

"No. She flew off aboard an unregistered personal shuttle," he said apologetically.

I frowned. "Then how do you know it was the assassin?"

"One of the guards had just left Adana's bed," he explained. "He was shocked to see her boarding a shuttle as she was literally still lying in bed moments prior to him coming down the lift. There is no way she could have gotten dressed and beaten him to the hangar."

"Is he sure it was Adana?" I insisted.

"He's adamant it was the same female. It shocked him so much, he went back upstairs and found her in the shower," Faolen replied. "When he asked if she had a twin, Adana said she has three brothers and only one baby sister who is twelve years younger than her, and from a different father. The guard thought it was weird, until he heard what happened. So he immediately made a report."

"Do we have anything on that shuttle's whereabouts?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

Faolen shook his head. "We do not track any of the comings and goings at the Serail for privacy. But we are gathering the footage from all the cameras in the area that might have caught a glimpse of the shuttle. All our peacekeeping forces have received a description of the vessel and are on the lookout for it."

"Good. I also want to know the name of every person she interacted with, especially visitors to the Serail," I said.

"We're already on it," Faolen replied.

"I want you to personally tackle another task," I continued, piquing his interest. "Brother Lindel, one of the residents of the Capital City's Sanctuary might be involved in all of this. I want you to gather absolutely every bit of information you can about him. That includes his whereabouts, contacts, past, communications, you name it."

"Your wish, my Prince," Faolen said with a nod.

"Now, I want a word with your mate," I said.

Right on cue, Faolen stiffened. Under different circumstances, I would be amused by the protective glimmer in his eyes. Although he'd finally made his peace with it, for the first year of his now two-year marriage to Deliah, Faolen struggled to accept that his soulmate was a Korlethean. But now, he was madly in love with her and would tear to shreds anyone who threatened her.

"She didn't foresee this attack and couldn't have prevented it," Faolen interjected defensively.

"Deliah will tell me herself what she did and didn't see," I snarled. "I'm not asking for your permission but giving you an order. Take me to your mate, right now !"

For the first time, Faolen genuinely considered disobeying my order or at least challenging it. Anyone else would already be feeling my wrath. In his place, I'd also want to stand up for my mate. But right now, this went beyond Deliah and Siona. An enemy the likes we'd never faced before casually infiltrated the palace, fooled extremely smart and cautious people, then walked away unscathed before vanishing. With Deliah regularly probing the possible paths of our future, how had she not foreseen this possibility?

"Deliah is loyal to you. Whatever knowledge she possesses, she will share freely and truthfully," Faolen said with repressed anger, although a challenge continued to burn bright in his eyes.

He didn't wait for my answer—not that I knew exactly what I would have responded—and turned around to exit the control room. In a silence rife with tension, we marched to the northwest wing of the palace where some of our high-ranking officials and honored guests had their assigned quarters. In the case of Deliah and Killian—our Korlethean Oracle and Seer—it was also to ensure their safety. No one would dare attack them on the palace's grounds.

The door to their dwelling opened seconds before we reached it. Deliah held it for us with an unreadable expression.

"You expected us," I said, my tone a little harsher than intended.

"Obviously," she replied with a shrug.

Her gaze flicked to her husband. Faolen was visibly seething, yet reining himself in. Oddly enough, the look they exchanged indicated each of them was trying to reassure the other. The deep love that bound them both moved and shamed me. Nevertheless, I cast out those emotions and focused on the matter at hand. I was the future Emperor of Sarenia. My duty took precedence over tender sentiments or friendships.

Two steps inside their dwelling revealed the presence of Killian. I didn't know how I felt about this. While it confirmed they had indeed foreseen I would come demanding answers, it also made me wonder if they had gotten together to sort out their potential deception.

"Did you foresee this?" I demanded, cutting to the chase.

"Won't you have a seat in—"

"I asked you a question!" I snapped, interrupting Deliah.

Faolen emitted a low, warning growl that had my claws instantly extruding. Deliah took a couple of steps towards her mate and rubbed her palm on his chest in a soothing fashion. The whole time, her eyes remained glued on me.

"It was one of many paths I foresaw," she replied in a factual manner.

My fangs descended, and I bared them at her as another wave of anger surged through me. But even through the red haze tinting my vision, I didn't miss the flabbergasted expression on Faolen's face. His mate had not told him either.

What other secrets does she keep from him? From us?

"You knew and you said nothing?!" I shouted.

"I told the people who needed to know," she replied defiantly. "Kaelin and Siona both knew her life was in peril."

"YOU LIE!" I yelled, taking a menacing step towards her that had Faolen, my guards, and even Killian take a protective step forward.

Despite my anger, it cut me deeply that they would deem it even the slightest possibility that I might harm a female.

"I do not lie, my Prince," Deliah replied firmly while stoically holding my gaze. "I have no reason to lie over something so easily verifiable."

"They wouldn't have hidden something this important from me," I hissed.

"They certainly did!" Deliah countered with a hint of anger. "Those women are protecting you, as they should. You have enough on your plate without having to also deal with this."

"If I had known—"

"You could have done nothing, let alone prevent it!" Deliah snapped, interrupting me, before flicking her long hair over her shoulder in an angry gesture. "Telling you would only have made things worse. You would have become paranoid and set up all kinds of protection protocols that would have created even more deadly paths for her. Every day, a dozen new paths of disaster open for you and your loved ones. Your choices shift them, closing most of them, but also creating new ones."

"But poisoning is an easy one to pinpoint and prevent!" I countered.

She sighed with exasperation. " This specific poisoning was just one of the countless variations that could have come to pass. If I listed all the possibilities I see, your mate would have been forced to starve herself to death. The only reasonable hint I could give them was if Kaelin leaves your side, if she ever leaves her function within the palace, then Siona will die. And today was proof. Kaelin saved her life!"

"Siona may still die!" I growled.

Deliah firmly shook her head. "She won't. That path is sealed. Kaelin and Jastira made sure of it by acting so swiftly and decisively. There are many paths as to how her recovery will go—whether it is on her own or with the assistance of the Veredians—but she does fully recover."

The wave of relief that surged through me left me feeling almost faint. Kaelin and Jastira's assurances that they had the situation under control had already alleviated some of my worries, but this sealed it. It was as if the invisible boulder that had been crushing my chest, making it hard to breathe, had finally been lifted.

"I'm glad to hear it. But the assassin got away. Did you see who did it?"

She shook her head apologetically, although her face displayed a deep confusion shared by Killian. "The assassin is faceless. They have every face, and yet none. I've never seen this before. Although, to be fair, it is extremely rare for a vision to reveal the face of the enemy. We will clearly see the fate of the target, but not a play by play of the events that led to that outcome nor of the instigators. For example, for your mate, I would only see her drink or eat something and then the vision would jump to when she's convulsing from the poison with Kaelin by her side, giving aid."

"So no Seer or Oracle can identify that bastard?" I ground through my teeth.

Deliah hesitated. "We, Korletheans, cannot do it. The only person with that type of power would be the Great General's mother, Amalia Praghan. But her power works in a very different fashion. The assassin would need to strike within a fifteen-minute window during which Amalia would be actively focusing her gift on Siona. The odds of that happening are slim to none. And Amalia has never met Siona. She needs to have met the person or touched their mind at least once to be able to probe their near future."

I heaved a frustrated sigh. "So we're back to square one."

"Yes, but with an added time pressure," Deliah said grimly.

"What do you mean?" I asked, worry taking root again.

"You must find and stop the assassin before your coronation. Failure to do so will result in a massive blood bath."

"We all die?" I asked, my stomach twisting painfully as the faces of my loved ones flashed before me.

" You will not," Killian replied in Deliah's stead. "But according to her visions, many others will, including your father, your son, Jastira, and Kaelin."

"And Siona?" I breathed out, my chest throbbing with a lancing pain at the thought of losing even a single one of them.

"Impossible to tell," Killian said. "As you know, for us male Seers, what we see is guaranteed to occur. In the vision Eryon and I had about the Great War, we saw you, Faolen, and many Sarenians fighting alongside Korletheans, Veredians, and Braxians. That means the two of you and those loyal to you will join the alliance. But I cannot say whether it will be in your capacity as Emperor. More importantly, neither of us ever saw Siona."

"Her path is unclear," Deliah said in a soft voice. "Some show her fighting alongside you in the Great War. Sadly, far too many show her meeting an untimely demise. But in all the cases where you didn't cull the rebellion before your coronation, she inevitably dies, either that day, or in the weeks that follow. Either way, she doesn't live past the first month following your ascension."

"But surely you can see what the trigger is for this blood bath!" I exclaimed, distraught and aggravated.

"I don't see the trigger, just the ensuing chaos. There are more attacks being planned, but they shift too fast for me to latch onto a single one. The choices of too many influence your future," Deliah says, discouraged. "However, I have two recurring images that never shift. One is a vast yard surrounded by caves, and the other is hundreds of Sarenians entering a river. Judging by the shaal they're wearing, I'm assuming it is to train their kaa underwater, as it really complements your amphibian nature."

"Lindel!" I exclaimed triumphantly. "Do either of you recall training the Brothers and Sisters of the Sanctuaries?"

Killian nodded. "I went to a few of the Sanctuaries, although I don't recall a Lindel. As you know, many among your people still hate us too much and won't interact with us, no matter how beneficial it could be for them. So their most gifted take our teachings and pass them on to others."

I was about to press him further on that topic when I noticed Deliah's face going slack and her eyes losing focus. I recognized well the look of a person entering a deep trance as they probed the future.

We all turned to stare at her, waiting for the Oracle to emerge from the vision she was receiving.

After a beat, she blinked and locked eyes with me.

"The water… Listen to shallow waters," she said in a solemn voice.

"What?! What the fuck does that even mean?" I said.

"Exactly what I said. Listen to shallow water," Deliah repeated, her face closing off.

"Why in Gharah's blood can't you just give me a clear answer instead of some nonsensical vague hint?" I asked angrily.

"Because giving you a more detailed answer will rob you of agency. It will stir you to a path that may not be the one you wanted or a worse one than what would have happened without that interference. When the time comes, this ‘vague hint' will be exactly what you need to make the right decision."